Health costs are soaring word wide and high personal and economical costs result in General Motors spending more in recent years on their worker's health than in metal. Adopting healthy behaviors can greatly contribute to general health and reduce the extensive financial and mental costs to the person, the employer and the state. The primary motivation underlying the proposed system is to increase adherence to health behavior among users who suffer from a variety of symptoms and health conditions requiring improvement (e.g., diabetes, hypertension, asthma, chronic pain, stress, etc.) through the digital devices the user use around the day (computers, tablets, mobiles, etc.)
Monitoring user's physiological indicators can reflect quantitatively the mental and emotional state accurately and in real time allow adaption and use of correcting health behaviors. The current technology is not being mass used because the main arena for those treatments (e.g. treatment of anxiety, depression, chronic pain, lung disease, etc.) is a dedicated clinic (e.g. psychologic clinic, pain clinic, etc.). This arena contributes to the creation of many obstacles ranging from financial barriers to space and time barriers. Moreover, from adoption of many health behaviors (such as: smoking cessation, healthy eating, exercise, breathing physiotherapy) till the result is achieved requires weeks, months or even years of practice. It is not enough to devote a concerted effort once a week for a few minutes; rather these techniques have to be implemented in daily life, and practiced every day (like brushing your teeth twice a day).
Adherence to medical care (e.g., drugs, physiotherapy) is estimated to only happen in about 30% of cases. This adherence level is very disturbing especially in the context of preventive health behavior adoption that has the capability to save substantial time and resources. Research has proven the huge health importance of physiological monitoring of various metrics (such as HRV) because they can give an indication of various health problems (e.g. HRV is a good indicator of lung function).
Currently, most software developed to encourage the adoption of health behavior requires dedicated and separate software (e.g. biofeedback games). This situation necessitated the increased development of new content (screens, games, sound clips, logs etc.) in order to maintain the high level of interest among users and motivate them time and again to adopt this behavior by using the software.
The separate treatment environment (e.g. clinic) creates a sterile environment which is disconnected from the user's daily life (this is the difference between brushing your teeth in your private bathroom compared with a dental appointment). Such an environment will not only put more obstacles for the user but impedes the ability to implement the desired behavior anytime and anywhere (e.g. there is a real difficulty applying tools successfully used to control anxiety in the clinic when taken into real life, such as during an actual test with test anxiety). Even in recent years as the technology has progressed and health programs have reached both PC and smartphone, these programs remain separate from the regular programs used throughout the day (e.g. a biofeedback relaxation application compared to the very frequent use of e-mail, web browser, or a video player). Not only does the user need to remember and choose to launch a separate application, but the user is asked to put aside all current tasks and open a separate dedicated application that requires his entire focus. This situation brings back the question of adherence to treatment which is in the heart of this discussion and highlights the acute need to find smart solutions to this complex problem.
The present invention provides a system and a method that can become an integral part of the usage of any IT device (e.g. computer, tablet, mobile . . . ), eliminating the need for a separate “sterile” treatment (for example in a clinic) and the “real world” where the human subject is working and functioning (and also suffering from a condition to be treated). In addition, the solution presented in the present application allows follow-up on the adherence to desired health behaviors. This innovative development gives a good answer to the challenges mentioned above—overcoming barriers of time, geography and economic resources along with a dramatic increase in the adoption of healthy behaviors in daily life of users, who are already interacting with technology which can now be programmed to help increase health.